Sunday, 20 October 2013

Ignorance of expectations – Indeed a bliss !!

Faizal was in awe of Neha, his best friend and colleague Animesh’s girlfriend. Animesh was giving a treat to Faizal for his engagement to Neha at KFC near their office. They seemed so much in love. And Neha, she was such a beauty. She carried herself so well, knew how to dress for the occasions, took part in conversations related to cricket and politics, truly a beauty with brains thought Faizal. Neha and Animesh were to get married next month just like him.

The mere thought of getting married saddened Faizal. After all, his was not a love marriage. He was getting married to Shabana who chosen by his parents back home in Lucknow. He had met her once and that too for a brief period during which he had just known that she had studied till 12th standard and cooked mutton biryani very well. How he wished that Shabana was a little more modern and behaved more like Mumbai girls. But, do all wishes come true?

*****

Eight months in the marriage and yet Faizal was never fully satisfied with Shabana and kept on bickering about something or the other. Shabana, on the other hand was as dutiful as possible. Faizal kept on insisting her to dress like Mumbai girls, behave a little like them but Shabana found this very odd. She couldn’t understand as to why her husband did not want her the way she was. After all, she was performing all the duties a wife should be doing. She kept his house clean, fed him warm food and run the household as efficiently as possible. But Faizal? He had a completely different image of a life partner. Nevertheless, he had accepted Shabana as his fate. But in heart of hearts, he wished Neha could make his wife become a little like her. He longed to make Neha and Shabana meet each other but always decided against it thinking about the inabilities of his wife to present herself before others and hence hardly took her to meet any of his colleagues or friends.

*****

It was yet another mundane Monday morning at office. Faizal was immersed in his work when Animesh came and sat by him. He was not his usual chirpy self. Faizal got worried.

Faizal – ‘What’s the matter Animesh? You seem to be worried since a long time. Is everything ok ??'

Animesh – ‘Faizal, you know it’s been just eight months since I have been married. But I really don’t know man, what does Neha want? I have been trying to be such a good husband all the time. I go home and help her out. Even on weekends, we do the household work together. I try and put in as much effort to keep the marriage going but she is never satisfied. I am really confused man, her expectations are beyond my comprehension. What do these modern women want out of their men? I just can’t figure out her expectations.’

*****

Faizal reached home that day in a confused state of mind. He didn’t know what to make out of Animesh’s problem. Neha, the beautiful and vivacious Neha was giving his friend a hard time. As soon as he rang the bell, Shabana smilingly opened the door. Took his laptop bag and offered him a glass of water. She went inside to fetch something to eat for him. He knew she would have cooked something fresh just before he arrived.

He thought that howsoever orthodox his wife was in her ways, at least he never had to crib about his married life to others. Shabana never gave him a hard time. He always had peace at home. For the first time after his marriage, he felt he had a good married life. Thank god, he didn’t take Shabana to meet Neha or else he too would be encountering similar problems of expectations of modern women from their men. Ignorance indeed is a bliss, he thought to himself.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda. We give out a creative writing theme each weekend for Indian bloggers. This week's prompt : To weave a post including, ‘Ignorance indeed is bliss, he/she thought to himself/herself.’

Me !!!

A double post graduate by education, a sarkari babu by profession and a writer by passion. Married to numbers but madly in love with Words. Avid Reader. Perpetual dreamer. Perennial optimist. I love to write and I write to stay alive..